Here is an example of making backups to a second hard drive. You can change that to use a tape drive also.
You can change the names to meet your needs...
mkdir -p /mnt/backup
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/backup -t ext3
Edit the /etc/fstab to mount that directory every time you reboot
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/backup ext3 defaults 0 0
Make a text file called backup.job with these lines in it.
#!/bin/bash
filename=`date '+%m%d%y'`
tar -cvzf /mnt/backup/${filename}.tar.gz /home
Make the file executable with the command:
chmod +x backup.job
Put the file into the /mnt/backup directory so you know where to look for it.
type the following commands:
export EDITOR=vi
crontab /etc/crontab
crontab -e
That will open up your personal crontab which you can edit to include your job....
Press the Insert key
Go to the next free line and add your backup job....
00 23 * * * /mnt/backup/backup.job
To save the changes....
Press the Esc key
Type :wq!
Now you should have a backup job ready to go.
